THE CITY'S BUYING

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 116, 13 November 1923, Page 6

THE CITY'S BUYING

The first instalment of the report of the Departmental Investigation Committee of the City Council is an important recommendation for the establishment of a new method of buying supplies for municipal requirements; and, in spite of what was apparently hot criticism in committee, the report ' was adopted. The city is therefore— unless the decision is revoked—to undergo a radical reform in connection with its expenditure, from which the Committee anticipates a large annual saving. The report, as adopted by the Council in face, of two amendments, states that the present system' is cumbersome and expensive, and lacks general supervision of purchasing and cdntrdl of stores, material, plant, and tools. Haphazard methods applied to a. turriover of approximately *150,0tJ0 a year dan easily be very costly; and if the few examples quoted in the report are any guide" to what has been going on, this is an instance where the cost has been so great as to demand a prompt remedy.

In the early, stages of the war, a grave scandal was Caused by the revelation of uncoordinated buying for the military and naval services at Home; and the conditions that then existed—and were remedied by the obvious means— were simply a large-scale illustration of what is apt to occur Whenever a big and scattered business is conducted without co-operation. The New Zealand Government has applied the principle of centralised buying by meatts of a special Dfepartment. So far as the municipality is concerned, the question hardly heeds to-be discussed -beyond admitting the need for a change and inquiring as to whether a saving will be effected. It might indeed be held that the city system would be bettered even if the means adopted to cure the conditions reported were so expensive as to cause no saving. The Committee proposes the establishment of a stores control board and a purchasing officer, the provision of a store, and a system of issue of and responsibility for supplies. It does not indicate what it considers the cost of this plan wiii be; but it does express the opinion that a large saving of money, as well aa of the time of the Council's employees (this'also means money) will be effected. The Committee has apparently collected a large, amount of information for the making of this report, which oh its face carries ihe impress of sanity and reasonableness. As the Council's discussion was held in .committee, there is no indication of the nature of the criticism, which appears" to have caused quite a warm debate; But such discussion as is reported was hot Characterised by' the breadth of view and sweet reasonableness that the city has a right to expect from its representatives. None of the reported objections was' really incompatible, with the principles of the Committee's findings and recommendations. Lax and wasteful expenditure^ whether due to inadequate individual control'or to a faulty system, should be corrected without loss of time. If the Committee, as Councillor Fofsyth complains, has not produced figures that show how a large saving can be made, it at least established a prirha facie case, which should have commended itseif as a matter for the most grave and unexoited discussion. However, the report fras finally adopted, and the members of the Committee are to be congratulated on the result of their labours.